MURRAY says the two questions needing answered are whether Rangers were handled with malicious intent and why it took so long to deliver a verdict.

PAUL MURRAY spent more than a year of his life trying to save Rangers from the path to destruction.

When Craig Whyte first emerged from the shadows as the club’s potential new owner, Murray warned of disaster ahead before finally – having reached his wits’ end with worry – attempting to launch his own 11th-hour counter-proposal which was pretty much strangled at birth.

Murray was then swiftly booted off the board as soon as Whyte had completed his purchase of the club for just a single pound.

And when his club was then plunged into administration a few months later, Murray scrambled together a group of Blue Knights whose mission statement was to save Rangers from the full-scale horror of liquidation.

Again, however, he came up short. To the tune of around £80million.

That was the size of the potential bill for EBTs which allowed Whyte into power in the first place – and then which scuppered any chance of striking a pence-in-the-pound deal with the taxman which would have allowed the ‘oldco’ to survive and perhaps even flourish again both in the top flight of Scottish football and also in the money- spinning European arena.

No wonder then, now that the Big Tax Case has crumbled leaving Rangers in the clear, Murray is in search of answers.

Who was responsible for allowing this saga to rumble on for so long, creating a climate of such anxiety and uncertainty that a man such as Whyte was able to walk in through the front doors of Ibrox and seize control?

Why did it take almost two years to deliver a verdict on an issue which hung over the club like the sword of Damocles?

And now that it’s been settled in Rangers favour, who should pay for all the damage that has been done?

Most of all, though, Murray wants to know how it could possibly be that a 140-year-old institution could be placed in such a perilous position by the authorities.

And if any of those dealing with the crisis were acting out of malicious intent.

Speaking exclusively to Record Sport yesterday, the Borders-based financial high-flyer called for court-appointed liquidators BDO to launch an urgent, wide-ranging probe into the circumstances surrounding the events which eventually saw Rangers go under and reappear again in the fourth tier of Scottish football.

He said: “I have to ask myself were people acting with a degree of malice towards Rangers? The answer to that is, I simply don’t know.

“But what I am saying is that there is certainly enough concern, loose ends and unanswered questions around this to absolutely warrant some kind of investigation.

"That’s why I believe BDO have a moral and legal responsibility to look at the whole chain of events, stretching back two maybe even three years, which ultimately led to the demise and liquidation of the ‘oldco’.

“I want them to look at the actions of all the parties involved and then, on the basis of that, decide whether they should be pursuing damages on behalf of the stakeholders.”

Murray tried to save the club from Craig Whyte

Those damages, Murray believes, could be substantial. And by substantial he means mind-boggling, perhaps well in excess of £50m.

The ultimate irony, however, is that any successful legal claims would be paid straight into the oldco’s creditors’ pot – and the vast majority of it would quickly be gobbled up by HMRC who were owed £15m in missing PAYE by Whyte’s crooked regime.

And that irony is not lost on Murray. He said: “One of the most important points to make here is that the very fact HMRC’s £75m claim was accepted as a claim in the first place meant they could block a CVA. Had it not been there, hanging over the club, then they would not have been able to block the CVA.

“That would have left Ticketus as the major creditor and they were keen to accept a CVA.

“In which case, Rangers would have been spared the turmoil of liquidation and would not have wound up in the Third Division, suffering all the financial penalties which accompanied it. There would have been no need for liquidation and no need for the creation of a newco.

"Also, there has to be some explanation given for exactly why it took so long for the tribunal to deliver its verdict. When I left the board in May 2011, we expected a verdict to come that July, just two months later. I think Craig Whyte was banking on that because he did not have the funds required to run the club on a long-term basis, especially when the team was knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Malmo.

“But here we are, some 18 months down the line, and now we discover that Rangers were not guilty.

“Again, I have to ask why did it take so long to reach that verdict and create such a crippling atmosphere of uncertainty? Without all that confusion Whyte would never have won control.”

Murray still curses that very day. And now he wants others to be held to account for failing so spectacularly to protect his football club – and helping to tip it over the edge. He said: “You do have to accept HMRC have a statutory duty on behalf of the public purse to pursue what they regard as tax avoidance.

“So it is perfectly acceptable for them to challenge this kind of thing. In fact, it’s their job. But what I find very concerning – and what needs to be looked at – is the length of time it took them to come to this decision and the massive damage this delay caused.

“And by damage I’m talking in particular about having the keys handed over to a man such as Craig Whyte.

“At that time no one credible would have invested in Rangers, when this contingent liability was hanging over the club. It was insanity and I said that at the time.

“I stepped forward with an alternative deal but I made it clear I wanted David Murray to take the liability on his shoulders.

“He refused to do that and sold to Whyte, who agreed to take the liability on.

“I said at the time it was complete insanity and we can now all see for ourselves the full result of that insanity.”